Open Tracking

19/09/2026

Centurion Running is out today with the Chiltern Wonderland 50 (what a cracking name for an event).

You can see where they are right here. With the lead runners battling the trophy icons for the record.
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/CW50-2026/

15/09/2026

Really got little to do with tracking.. but the photo is from our world of ultra running. David Miller has this photo in a documentary photo competition. Says so much - where this scene is normalised in the world of ultra running.

https://www.britishphotographyawards.org/2026-shortlist/shortlist/documentary/refuge/62c1f9d6-9395-4931-8a49-64e105c78802

05/09/2026

Busy weekend

Dartmoor in a Day with Climb South West
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/30diad26/
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/50diad26/

Rat Race Sea to Summit Scafell
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/rrs2ssp26/

Run Through Sea to Sky Snowdonia
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/rt26snowdonia54/

Ring of Fire Ultra Marathon
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/rofum2026/

UTMR Stage and non-stop 170
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/UTMR26stage/
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/UTMR26ultra170/

And Lucy Gossage out running along the Pennine Way
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/lgpennine26/

Tomorrow Glencoe Marathon
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/glencoefull26/
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/glencoehalf26/

And Charm Bracelet Trail Events Marathon
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/blencathramarathon26/

We also have trackers out with DofE groups and on Race to Sun Keswick with The Adventure Element Ltd

01/09/2026

Industry is full of complicated and expensive solutions to what are simple solutions.

We needed a way to move trackers. The timing chip in the tracker - only emits a signal when its moving. Whilst it may seem simple just to shake a tracker to test if its working - when you have 2700 to test, you need a different solution.

There are what is called "Shaker" rigs - designed to shake products almost to destruction.. but the cost even for a small one can quickly run in to many £###x's

So here enters Vibraslim PLATINUM vibration exercise plate - a quality product off ebay. Designed for those looking to loose a few pounds. Stand on it for 10 mins a day and watch the weight disappear.

For us it does the perfect job of shaking the trackers.

We have yet to get a video of anyone in the office trying it out at full tilt. Pretty sure you would loose teeth if on it for 15 mins. If we do get any quality footage of staff using the machine as it was designed for we will be sure to post it here.

30/08/2026

Interesting one today. Aside from the trackers out on ultra running events this weekend and the Thames 200 paddling event https://live.opentracking.co.uk/thames200ultra26/

We have trackers out on a Motorbike Trial event "The Mintex Youth Trophy Trial". The organisers wanted a means to confirm the routes that the participants were taking, so they could review them for the results. But also have a better idea on where participants were on the course.

We have provided our small tracker on a higher frequency than normal. They have been provided with racebelts and clips that we normally use on shorter running events. Its always fascinating to see tracking used in sports that to be honest we didn't forsee.

11/08/2026

We are active over on Linkedin as well. Dare we say conversations can be a little more polite, event organisers are less likely to get people blowing off steam about the wrong brand of cola at a feed station.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-tracking

Conversely there can be a little bit of rainbows and are you not just wonderful. Still we like to interact with many event organisers on that side of social media.

James has just tapped out an article on the economics of running a tracking business. You can find it here (if Facebook lets us link to it)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/economics-running-sports-tracking-business-open-tracking-0hhfe/

James Thurlow (Director Open Tracking) The economics of running a tracking business both fascinate me and scare me with equal measure. Lets start with the context - if we want more of those small trackers we have.

08/08/2026

Centurion Running are out today with the North Downs Way 100 https://live.opentracking.co.uk/NDW100-2026/

RunThrough Trails have the 51k in the Brecon Beacons
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/26rtbrecon51/

Further East we have the Stour Valley Path 100k and 50k
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570349589122&sk=about
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/26svp100/
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/26svp50/

04/08/2026

So what is the mobile coverage like in the Lake District. Well the Lakeland 100 gives us a fair picture. The red dots are where there is no coverage and the blue ones are the live data.

Its worth noting that the trackers do roam across all the UK networks.. and we are only looking to get an insty bit of data out every 60s, not live stream your journey in 4k.

Just add to this at the checkpoints we have readers that pick up the trackers, and bump the pins along. This year all checkpoints had a reader. The noteable places are Buttermere and Mardale. Seathwaite use to be devoid of signal but there is signal now in the Duddon valley. Likewise with Kentmere.

For events looking to use Open Tracking, we often send out a demo tracker which they can take out on the route so they can get a picture like this of where there maybe signal issues.

But increasingly the number of not spots is reducing, and in years to come technology will help us reduce the length of time that a tracker is out of range. More on that another day..

31/07/2026

The new portal just keeps on giving..

If you head over to the tracking pages from the The Montane Lakeland 50 & 100 today, and click on a finisher. There is now a button that you can tap to get a finishers certificate.

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/26lakeland50/
https://live.opentracking.co.uk/26lakeland100/

Click the "download" button and it will produce a PDF for you to print out and frame.

This is for finishers only.

Do wonder if we should have a DNF certificate, that people can put up in sheds to remind them that they need to come back and finish the job off. (James)

11/05/2026

How do we do it?

Yesterday we witnessed what has to be the largest single event we have tracked with over 2300 trackers on riders. We used our new smaller OT30 trackers. Crunch is the battery on these little trackers is setup to last 12hrs and the event lasts 12hrs.

What makes this unique is that we dynamically issued all 2300 trackers in just 90 mins. As you can see in the video we had 5 staff scanning either the riders number or the helmet sticker then scan the tracker. This process not only allocated the tracker to the rider but also ran a few checks on the tracker.

We check the battery level on the tracker - as we were pushing the limit, any with less than 95% were put to one side, to either be top up charged or handed to faster riders starting later (was not needed). The scanning also checks to make sure the tracker has sent data in the last 30 mins and finally there are checks on the numbers scanned - is it a bib number or a tracker number..

Its a very efficient process, something some of our customers are starting to do themselves. It is done using our own custom app on commercial Zebra handheld computers - like what you would see a courier use. If for whatever reason the internet connection drops out they will still record the scans and upload when ready.

If an event consistently has say 20% DNS rate over say 5 years. It be fair to provide say 10% less trackers than the entry list. Only works if we can dynamically allocate on the day.

Suffice to say some events have very low DNS rates - usually expensive events where you will find a good number of people with coughs and colds who on any other race day would stay at home. Also team or pairs based events have low DNS rates (e.g. Saunders Mountain Marathon). Cheaper / remote events have higher DNS rates and we have seen it as high as 40%.